Mineko Maina/History
Mineko was born in a small village named Toketsu. This small village was placed on top of a mountain, where it constantly snowed. At a young age, Mineko was positive and energetic, similar to how she has now decided to act. She met a young girl named Rai, who she quickly befriended because of the similarity they had as shapeshifters. They were both similar as they could both transform into wild cats, Rai's form being a panther. They would often spend their time playing hide-and-seek, which Mineko almost always lost because of her clumsiness and loudness. However, they would also help each other grow stronger, by play fighting in their forms. Mineko oftentimes had trouble being bullied by students at her school, due to her not learning as fast as the others. At this time, Rai would always sit next to her, and be her literal shoulder to cry on. Rai was the person who supported her the most through the tough times in her childhood, including the day when things changed for the worst for Mineko. She would often sleep with her mom due to her having a huge fear of being alone, and one morning, she woke up to her dead mother beside her. She later found out that her death was caused by an overdose of pills. After this, Mineko refused to do anything, even eat, or leave her bedroom. Rai seemed to be the only one that could talk sense into her, and convinced her to live on for her mom. Thanks to Rai, she was slowly starting to move on from her loss, however, things continued to get worse. Rai had an unfortunate encounter with a Reborn Shadow, which greatly affected her well being. It constantly stayed by her side, as if stalking her. And every day Rai's health seemed to obviously be deteriorating. Mineko noticed the obvious change in her friend, and tried to be there for her and comfort her, but no matter what Mineko did, Rai seemed to be getting worse. Being inexperienced with the knowledge of Shadows, she didn't know what was causing this, and didn't know what to do to help her friend. One night, Rai transformed into her panther form, and attacked Mineko, obviously having the intent to kill. Mineko immediately transformed in shock to defend herself, and noticed the crazed look in her eyes, and also the change in the color of her eyes. Her eyes were no longer the dark blue they used to be, they were now a dull grey. Her friend Rai was no more. Mineko did not want to injure her friend, but she had to fight back to survive. They gave each other several serious wounds, before Rai's eye color slightly changed back to its normal blue color. She suddenly jumped off of Mineko, and started to run away. Mineko attempted to get up, but was stopped by an injury to her leg. However, she was determined to follow Rai, and tried to ignore the throbbing pain. She followed Rai's paw prints to Rai's own house, noticing the door was wide open. She cautiously went in, calling out Rai's name repeatedly. She was half expecting Rai to jump out of nowhere and attack her as she searched for her. She eventually went to her bedroom, and she was scarred by what she saw. Rai was holding a knife to her neck, and it was obvious what her intentions were. Mineko could faintly see a black shadow looming over her, seeming to be smiling. Mineko instinctively cried out to her friend, but it was too late, Rai had already ended her life. As Mineko fell on her knees in pure shock and horror, the Shadow seemed to be inching closer to Mineko. Mineko screamed in terror, running as fast as she could run, despite her injury. However, despite Mineko's best efforts, the Shadow was able to easily catch up to Mineko, and touched Mineko's cut on her leg, which made her yelp in agony, instantly causing her to fall to the ground. Mineko expected to die, but instead of finishing her off, the Shadow disappeared, an obvious smile on its face. Mineko dragged herself to a nearby cave, noticing dark matter seeming to enter her wound. However, she was in too much pain to worry about this. To her surprise, the cave already seemed to be occupied by two strangers. Mineko knew she would be helpless in a fight if they were hostile, so she prepared herself for the worst. However, to her surprise, they offered for her to stay with them for the night, and helped heal her wound. That night, the two strangers were telling stories to Mineko about their past. Mineko however, refused to do the same. The next morning, Mineko immediately realized that the pain in her leg was gone, and decided to head off, but not before thanking the two strangers for their kindness. After wandering around for a while, she randomly broke down crying, calling out for her best friend to come back, begging that she was somehow still alive, even though she herself saw the pool of blood. She attempted to travel back to her home, but her legs were beginning to feel like heavy weights, and she soon had to drag her legs across the ground. She soon collapsed completely, and was starting to feel her heart race rapidly. Thousands of dark and negative thoughts were swarming around in her head, and her vision was becoming blurry. She was panicking, fearing that she was somehow dying. She then noticed a man with a dog following close behind. Her body then began to move on its own, as she started to run towards the man, before jumping on top of him. The dog yelped in surprise, before attempting to defend its owner, however a single bite from Mineko's jaws was enough to make the dog's body go limb, as she threw it aside like it was nothing. She then proceeded to claw the man apart, quickly killing him. Mineko stood there, staring at the corpses of both of her victims, before realizing what she had just done. She ran away in fear, trying to get as far away from the bodies as possible, hoping and praying that no one had seen what she had just done. Mineko knew that she could not return to her home, as it would bring back too many bad memories, and the thought of seeing that Shadow again was enough to send shivers down her spine. She wanted to get as far away from that Shadow as possible, so she continued to travel further and further away from her home, leaving the good memories behind. Along her journey, she met a tall teenage girl, who she later learned was named Moonlight. Moonlight could sense the negative waves coming from Mineko, and immediately took an odd interest in her. Moonlight's appearance automatically reminded her of Rai's looks, which made her feel as if she could trust this stranger completely, even if she did seem a bit weird. Shortly after examining her, Moonlight literally dragged her to her home nearby, located in the Old City. Moonlight treated Mineko like an honored guest, before asking her several questions, mostly about her being related to the Reborn Shadows. Mineko was confused at the time, not even knowing what a Reborn Shadow was. Shocked at this fact, Moonlight began to teach her many facts about them, while also trying out many new experiments with her. Although reluctant, Mineko agreed to help Moonlight with her experiments, and has been her "test subject" ever since. However, Mineko's relationship with Moonlight has grown to be more than just a simple friendship, or at least to Moonlight. Because of Moonlight's similar appearance to Rai, Mineko bonded to her very quickly, and while Moonlight saw Mineko as not much more than a test subject at first, she now has developed feelings for her. Although Mineko constantly visits Moonlight, she lives in Crestfall, studying Shadows constantly with books, and from Moonlight's teachings. Her fear of the Shadows has completely taken over her life, and many of her nightmares are of her reliving the day that Rai had died, or of her being consumed by darkness herself. Mineko knows that the dark matter that had entered her leg wound was the cause of her killing that man that she encountered. The dark matter inside of her will continue to grow, until it consumes her whole body and soul, before she too, becomes a Shadow herself. Because of this, she has a tendency to snap at people for no reason, but she tries to control herself to the best of her ability. Knowing that her inevitable fate is to become a heartless creature that feels nothing and kills for no apparent reason, has left her in much depression and despair. She then soon met Maxi, who she soon grew to love. However, she keeps her fate a secret from him. Knowing that Shadows are attracted to negative emotions further scares Mineko, as she fears that encountering another one will cause her fate to occur sooner, so throughout the years, she has learned to almost always act cheerful, as she has somehow convinced herself that that will repel them.